The pizzas at Mary's Pizza Shack are a little pricier.
The pastas at Flavor have less cheese and more vegetables.
And the busboys at Checkers also wash windows.
Soaring food prices and a slumping economy are gobbling up Sonoma County restaurants' profits, forcing them to find creative ways to cut costs and draw in diners.
"In the 12 years I've been here, I've never seen anything like it," said Katherine Castillo, owner of Checkers Bistro & Wine Bar in downtown Santa Rosa.
Sales at Castillo's Fourth Street restaurant were off 30 percent in January, a bruising month from which she is still trying to recover. She has raised prices, cut expenses to the bone, added new items to her California fusion menu, and is rolling out new promotions faster than her chef can roll out the prosciutto-wrapped scallops.
Diners who show a Costco card get half off a second entree. Corkage, normally $10, will be free under a program she's launching with local winery tasting rooms.
"It's a scary time right now, but I'm hopeful it's not going to last," says Castillo, who managed the restaurant for a decade before buying it in 2006.
She's far from the only one feeling the pinch. From fancy white tablecloth joints in Healdsburg to family-friendly pizza parlors, restaurants across Wine Country are feeling pummeled like pieces of veal.
Sonoma County's two largest locally owned restaurant chains, Cattlemens and Mary's Pizza Shack, both say rising food costs and cautious consumers are creating one of the toughest business climates in years.
"If people can't afford their house payments, they're obviously going to go out to restaurants less," said John Frenzel, director of marketing for Cattlemens, the Santa Rosa-based chain of nine steakhouses.
Not only is the number of diners down, but when people do treat themselves to a night out, they're spending less. They're ordering less-expensive entrees, drinking less alcohol and skipping dessert.
"We have noticed over the last year more people going from higher priced items to lower priced items," Frenzel said.
The Sheriff -- a $25, 2-pound sirloin -- is still in charge at Cattlemens, a Western-themed chain that prides itself on generous portions.
But facing the highest beef costs in history, the steakhouse has rolled out several new menu items to adjust to the leaner times.
New value meals offering smaller cuts of steak, short ribs and tri-tip, each costing several dollars less than regular entrees, are becoming increasingly popular, Frenzel said.
"It's a good plate of food," he said.
A host of other special promotions are aimed at keeping prices low for customers. Two-dollar beers and $1 beef ribs draw crowds on Mondays. Kids eat free on Thursdays.
But consumers aren't the only ones tightening their grip on their wallets as the economy softens. Companies are pulling back, too, and that's taken a big bite out of Cattlemens business.
The chain saw 34 banquets canceled over the holidays. Many of those were for companies in the building trades, which have scaled back operations as the housing market tumbles.
Many that didn't cancel switched to lunch banquets instead of dinner, reducing the size of the bill since alcohol isn't generally served, Frenzel said.
That not only hurts the company's bottom line but the servers as well. Smaller bills mean smaller tips.
It's the same story at Mary's Pizza Shack, the Sonoma-based chain that just opened restaurants in Santa Rosa and Roseville.
"We're definitely feeling it," said Cullen Williamson, the company's chief executive. "Sales are soft, and people are more aware of their dollar. They're coming to us fewer times or when they come to us, they are just ordering more conservatively."
That's a problem but not an insurmountable one. Rising food costs, particularly flour prices, are a more formidable challenge, he said.
The company's 16 stores went through 750,000 pounds of flour last year, paying about $190,000. This year they'll pay $350,000 for the same amount, a $160,000 additional expense that will be tough to recoup.
Serving smaller portions or using cheaper ingredients are not changes Mary's is willing to make, Williamson said. The company would rather raise prices, which it did last year by about 5 percent.
"It may get you out of a one-year slump, but it's not going to help you in the long run," he said. "We just think that's a recipe for long-term disaster."
At Flavor, on Old Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa, chef and co-owner Charles Downing said the cost increases are brutal.
"The price of wheat is insane. The price of dairy is insane. The price of oil is insane," he said.
And yet he's been "very shy" about increasing prices. Three-quarters of the menu is under $14, and Downing wants to keep it that way.
He'd rather experiment with menu items, such as using less dairy in pasta dishes and more locally grown vegetables like asparagus and fava beans.
Across the square at Checkers, Castillo raised prices last year and is watching costs like a hawk to avoid raising them again.
She's cut back on fresh flowers. She's stopped using a window-washing service, asking the busboys to do it instead. ("They've got nothing but time," she says.) And while she still delivers plenty of free foccaccia for dipping in the olive oil, she doesn't go overboard either.
And she works now more than ever. Castillo was forced to lay off one of her eight servers, has cut back on the others' shifts and often waits tables herself.
In January, after giving birth to her second child, she returned to work just nine days later.
"My business is important to me," she said. "This is my family, too."
You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@
pressdemocrat.com.
